In the operation of an elevator system, it is essential to receive and process the call data entered by passengers. The problematics consist in determining the most optimal elevator, defined by a desired indicator, for each elevator passenger having entered a call, and controlling the elevators in accordance with the optimization results. In an elevator system, a customer arriving to the elevator calls an elevator to the floor where he/she is currently located by pressing the button of a call device near the elevator door. The commonest solution for implementing the call device is to provide up and down call buttons on each floor, which are used by the customer to indicate to the system the desired traveling direction. In this context, such a call is referred to as a hall call. This traditional method, called collective control, requires the customer to give the actual destination floor information within the elevator car via a separate car operating panel. In the present context, the input of destination floor information is referred to as a destination call, regardless of whether the destination floor information is given in the elevator car or outside it. The collective control method has the disadvantage that the system only learns the customer's destination floor after the elevator has already arrived at the customer's original floor of location. Therefore, it is impossible to allocate only one elevator for passengers wanting a ride to the same destination floor at the same time, because the system knows nothing of the customers' destination floors on the basis of the depressions of up/down buttons. In the aforesaid situation, allocating only one elevator is the most advantageous solution, because this allows the total number of “intermediate stops” in the elevator system to be reduced and consequently the traveling time of people going to different floors in the building to be shortened, which is a pronounced effect especially in the case of passengers traveling to the highest floors.
In destination control of an elevator, the elevator user inputs his/her destination floor to the elevator control system already in the lobby on the starting floor. Thus, the customer only has to enter a call once as no up/down calls are needed. Therefore, no separate call needs to be entered in the elevator car. Destination control gives the elevator control system a possibility to make smarter call allocation decisions, thereby allowing more efficient utilization of elevator capacity. Destination control requires a special destination call device, which has to allow the input of all possible floor numbers and identifiers to the control system. In practice, it is often sufficient for the destination call device to contain number keys 0-9. Due to the destination call device, destination control may be more expensive than traditional collective control.
So-called “full destination” method in this context refers to a destination control system in which all floors served by an elevator group are provided with destination call devices. In such a system it is not possible to enter a traditional up or down call, but the user always has to enter a destination call. Therefore, the normal car operating panel is not needed in this system.
A problem with collective control is that the system is not informed about the customers' destination floors until after the customer has entered the elevator car. For this reason, elevator allocation in large elevator systems with large numbers of customers can be accomplished in a smarter way by using destination control. Destination control again involves the problem of higher costs as compared to the collective control system.